The beginning
by mrsalphatoretto
Summary: Following


Softly and on her tiptoes, the fifteen-year-old left her room before creeping down the stairs and out of the house.

Outside, it was already dark and she would have had to talk with her father before she left the house but he was already drunk and out cold. He had started drinking at midday and was now asleep in front of the TV. Besides, he certainly wouldn't have let her out of the house if he had known where she wanted to go.

About five blocks away from her home, a street race took place which was anything but legal. That was Letty's goal, where she wanted to go. After working on her car for a whole year, she wanted to finally test it in a race.

With a mixture of anticipation and nervousness, the brunette slipped into her car and drove off. She needed about six minutes to reach her destination with her baby. When she arrived, she parked her car next to a black Dodge Charger and got out of the car.

The small one-way street was crowded with people and cars. Women in tight skirts and tops that clunged to their bodies begged for the attention of the men and the men gave themselves freely. Leticia shook her head. How could a woman have so little sense of self-esteem and thus offer herself to a man?

The fifteen-year-old looked carefully around and pulled the wad of cash out of her back pocket. There was a thousand dollars in notes of 10, bounded together by a loose hair band. Actually, it was her father's money that he had hidden in his sock draw; Letty had told herself that it is not stealing. She had only borrowed it, and as soon as she had the prize money she would give him back his part. Letty did not want to think about what would happen when he found out that she had taken the money. She would be dead. And that's to say the least.

The other racers gathered around an older driver who was collecting the money and Letty approached the group. She was the only woman in the group but that did not bother her much. She gave the man a bundle of money, earning amused stares.

"Are you sure you want to do that, my girl?" The man asked in amusement, letting out a laugh.

The people around them giggled and chuckled.

"Firstly, I'm not your girl. Secondly, I have the money and I am giving it to you. So, yes, I really do want to do it," She replied, her eyebrow raised and confidence radiating off her. She stuffed her bundle of money into the man's hands which also held the other wads of cash.

"Well then, for once you men have a woman racing with you."

Letty turned her back on the guy and went to her car.

Letty had expected such reactions; they still made her angry. She knew she was a damn good rider. She know's her car and she has it under control. She would show this bloated guy how good of a racer she really is.

Motivated and confident, she slipped back into her car and drove it to the starting line which was at the mainstreet in this part of Los Angeles.

On each side she has two guys who grinned at her and said some rude words. The third guy did the same. The fourth looked at her strangely.

Letty could almost see a look of admiration in his eyes. She knew that just couldn't be it. A male racer? Looking at a girl with admiration instead of just lust? That was definitely not it.

Although she wanted to race and she had been prepared for months, the excitement was now very overwhelming. She was not afraid; she believed in herself but she did not trust the other drivers. There were not many rules or better yet, there were no rules at such a race so what kept one of the other riders from pushing her off the road or worse? Right. Nothing.

When the starting signal came she slammed her foot on the gas and lead the race. It was a quarter mile run and that should not be difficult to win. On the half of the track, the brunette changed the passage and grinned broadly. She was on top.

"Yes baby!"

It seemed as if she would win the race, although her car was definitely not the fastest.

Of course it had a lot of PS but there were faster cars and that confirmed their theory that it was not important what one had under the hood, but who was behind the wheel.

With a wide grin she steered to the finish line and shortly before she reached the line she was rammed into by another car and that brought her car to spin endlessly.

The boy next to her had been trying to drive retests over the target grades and lost control of his car. So he had taken them both off the road. She had not been prepared for that. Letty had planned many complications and had also gone through different scenarios, but she did not expect that. How stupid of her!

"No, no, no, my car!" Cursed the brunette as she tried to get her car to stop still but to no luck, she watched as the other driver surrendered with his car and remained in the side street in which he landed on the roof of his car.

"Oh damn." She breathed. He had dented her car and had tasted the victory, but letting him die was not an option. Letty pulled the handbrake and rolled out of the car as it crashed against the wall.

Smoke arose from the other driver's car and the brunette assumed that he had installed NOS. The car could blow and take everything with it. Letty, the other driver, their cars and maybe even the wall that Leticia's car had spun into.

"Damn." Letty whispered to herself as she hurried to him and laid down beside the car.

The driver was still conscious, thankfully.

"Does it hurt anywhere?", It was a rhetorical question because it certainly hurt him somewhere. He didn't seem to have been pierced by anything, but he had to have at least a few broken ribs from the wheel.

"I had not planned that," Groaned the guy and Letty shook her head.

"Then you should have let me win, then neither your car nor my car would be broken and I would have cashed the prize money. Now we both have a problem," She told him, not intending to be bitter as she stared at his face.

He had some sore wounds and a large gaping wound on his forehead but still looked good.

'What are you thinking about?' She scolded herself, remembering that the car was going to blow up soon.

"Can you loosen the straps? I'll try to pull you out. " The guy nodded, smiling, and Letty breathed a sigh of relief.

"If you have NOS in this car, it's gonna explode, and you may have scraped my car and sent it into a wall but I am not going to let you die," She said and smiled back at him.

This was probably the worst possible moment to flirt. Was this flirting?

"Dominic Toretto" The guy introduced himself as he tried to solve his H-harness.

"Damn, it's jammed!" She cursed but then remembered her pocket knife, which she always carried in the left boot.

"Okay now hold still or I'll stab you." Joked Letty as she pulled the pocket knife out. She flipped it open and crawled halfway into the

"Don't fall on me Dom," She warned him with a bright grin and cut through the belts before she quickly crawled out of the wreckage again.

With a groan, Dominic slipped out of his seat and Letty pulled him out of the wreckage without paying attention to the broken glass.

Struggling, she dragged Dominic a few yards away from the wreckAGE and helped him to his feet.

"Damn," Dominic muttered as he looked at his broken car and Letty nodded.

"Yeah, you can say that out loud" Her eyes wandered to her own car and she shook her head.

So much time and effort she had invested into this car and now she could put it in the trash.

"Sorry about your car." He said, and Letty looked at him.

"You owe me a new car." A grin fell on her lips, but she shook her head.

"You guys, you always have to show off"

"Actually, I just wanted to impress a girl who has a great mouth and more balls than some men."

"That was definitely good plan," Letty grinned, her eyes wandering from the wrecked Dodge Charger to Dominic.

"Seems so." The seemingly older guy grinned in satisfaction.

"But I got your attention clearly." The brunette chuckled and nodded briefly.

"Yeah, and that cost us both of our cars and almost your life, you could just have addressed me," Letty said, turning around. "Let's get rid of it, I don't want to watch your car go up."

"Why don't you tell me your name?"

She grinned obliquely,"Letty, my names Letty."


End file.
